The discovery of the marine "deep biosphere"-microorganisms living deep below the seafloor-is one of the most significant and exciting discoveries since the ocean drilling program began more than 40 years ag...The discovery of the marine "deep biosphere"-microorganisms living deep below the seafloor-is one of the most significant and exciting discoveries since the ocean drilling program began more than 40 years ago. Study of the deep biosphere has become a research frontier and a hot spot both for geological and biological sciences. Here, we introduce the history of the discovery of the deep biosphere, and then we describe the types of environments for life below the seafloor, the energy sources for the living creatures, the diversity of organisms within the deep biosphere, and the new tools and technologies used in this research field. We will highlight several recently completed Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expeditions, which targeted the subseafloor deep biosphere within the crust and sediments. Finally, future research directions and challenges of deep biosphere investigation towards uncovering the roles of subsurface microorganisms will be briefly addressed.展开更多
基金supported by the National Basic Research Program of China(2011CB808800)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(40830213), IODP-China+2 种基金grants from the State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering in China (GKZD010053-1, GKZD010056-5)BNOac knowledges financial support by the Danish National Research Foundation and the Max Planck SocietyBNO and KJE are parttially supported by the National Science Foundation Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI, funded by OCE-0939564)
文摘The discovery of the marine "deep biosphere"-microorganisms living deep below the seafloor-is one of the most significant and exciting discoveries since the ocean drilling program began more than 40 years ago. Study of the deep biosphere has become a research frontier and a hot spot both for geological and biological sciences. Here, we introduce the history of the discovery of the deep biosphere, and then we describe the types of environments for life below the seafloor, the energy sources for the living creatures, the diversity of organisms within the deep biosphere, and the new tools and technologies used in this research field. We will highlight several recently completed Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expeditions, which targeted the subseafloor deep biosphere within the crust and sediments. Finally, future research directions and challenges of deep biosphere investigation towards uncovering the roles of subsurface microorganisms will be briefly addressed.
